Guest essay: Staying upbeat about Valentown’s future

Friday

May 23, 2014 at 12:57 PMMay 23, 2014 at 6:44 PM

By Kathryn White

The Victor Historical Society is continuing with the campaign to bring Historic Valentown and the surrounding site back as a vital part of today’s community. Last year the society was awarded grants from the Landmark Society of Western New York and The Preservation League of New York to retain the services of John Bero LLC to evaluate Valentown Hall. The report told us despite the outside appearance of our grand old building, there is a clear path to our goal without too many obstacles except hard work and cash.The coming changes next to Valentown have been well publicized with the construction of two major retail developments and scheduled road improvements to High Street on our doorstep, all at the same time. We attended many meetings for these ambitious projects and asked questions that the society felt were critical to our welfare. The Valentown site is on the National Register of Historic Places, which makes us eligible for certain considerations from the state and federal governments.This registry includes the land as well as the buildings, something that can often be misunderstood or ignored. This ensures that major changes taking place next to us will not have a negative impact during construction or after the new complexes are operating. We spent a considerable amount of time trying to educate people regarding this registry. This designation helps address issues like vibration levels, sewer and water capacity, environmental changes like water erosion and loss of natural habitat, as well as adequate buffers between these new areas and Valentown.We hope that we can maintain as much of our rural heritage as possible once you step onto our property. As we try to accommodate all this and plan for our own sustainability, we hope visitors can still sense that part of the past that was a little less complex and busy. We always knew that changes were coming, but how we get there is important. We too have much to offer and we hope that our presence and our goals for our own future will be accepted with as much enthusiasm as these new additions to the landscape around us.Kathy White is president of the Victor Historical Society.